President Pratibha Patil inaugurated the Anti-Leprosy Fortnight and Leprosy Seal Campaign at Rashtrapati Bhavan here on Saturday. Speaking on the occasion, the President observed that though a lot work has already gone into eradicating the ailment, much more still remains to be done.The President expressed satisfaction that a lot of people from a cross-section of society and several professions have devoted their time and money to help in this effort which was so close to Mahatma Gandhi’s heart.

The cabinet approved path-breaking legislation making it mandatory for doctors, hospitals and other medical establishments to treat victims of road accidents and other emergencies and not turn away patients on specious pleas, official sources said. The legislation "makes it mandatory to provide, stabilise and treat emergency medical conditions", official sources said of The Clinical Establishments (Registration and Regulation) Bill, 2010, that the cabinet cleared at a meeting presided over by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

The government will be working towards making laws gender neutral in the next four years, Union minister of law and justice M Veerappa Moily said while inaugurating a three-day 'Civil Society Summit: Observing that a number of laws were gender-biased, he said “they (laws) should become gender neutral and I assure you in the next four years this will be done.” The minister asked NGOs to act as an interface between the society and the government so that benefits of post-independence progress must reach everyone. He also asked them to come up with “feasible programmes to ensure greater participation of the people” and assured them that they will be implemented.

Gender-based disparities have shown a decline in the country in the last decade with the national capital scoring the highest, according to a report by the Ministry of Women and Child Development. There is an overall improvement in the performance on the Gender Empowerment Measure (GEM) over the decade, both in the all-India score and in the scores achieved by the States and Union Territories, the report titled “Gendering Human Development Indices: Recasting the Gender Development Index and Gender Empowerment Measure for Index” says.

Babies born to child brides in India have a higher risk of malnutrition than those born to adult mothers, according to research published Friday. The study by researchers from Boston University, published by the British Medical Journal (BMJ), found that 67 percent of babies born to child brides in India were malnourished, a condition that is linked to child deaths. India has the highest number of under-five deaths in the world, with 2.1 million such children dying in 2006 alone. Such deaths have previously been linked to early motherhood, which can lead to neonatal death, stillbirth, low birthweight of infants, and deaths of children under the age of five years.

Swedish Minister for Elderly Care and Public Health Maria Larsson is coming to India to boost bilateral relations in the field of public health. The five-day programme, will see ministerial bilateral meetings and signing of agreements in the healthcare sector. Indo-Swedish thematic workshops will also be held on anti-biotic resistance, pharmaceuticals, public health, alcohol, adolescent health and public health research, the Swedish embassy in New Delhi said Friday. In addition, round tables will be organised on sustainable and affordable healthcare and seminars on innovating and partnering with technology, the way ahead to accessible healthcare.

The Centre is taking steps to increase the number of mental health care professionals and make their services available at the primary level. The National Mental Health Programme is being re-strategised for the community-based approach, Union Health and Family Welfare Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad said. Stressing on the need for addressing the trauma of the victims of natural and human-made disasters, which often go unnoticed and unattended, Mr. Azad said a sum of Rs.1,000 crore had been allocated for mental health services at the primary care level and integrating it into the general health care.

The Union Railway Ministry and the Health Ministry are looking at the possibility of setting up health-related institutions and infrastructure at over 600 locations across the country on vacant land available with the Railways. Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee and Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad discussed the issue on Monday and outlined a blueprint for effective and innovative use of railway land by setting up various tiers of health care facilities and colleges.

Workers of Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHA) who are involved in reproductive health care of women and children in the rural areas will now be trained for the multi-drug resistant tuberculosis eradication programme in North-East Delhi. Under the DOTS-Plus scheme, ASHA workers will be trained and employed for the MDR-TB eradication programme. As of now ASHA workers are implementing various activities in the primary health sector in the rural areas under the National Rural Health Mission. But considering their reach and achievements, their role has become important in tackling other diseases as well.

Almost 80 per cent of the rural population is without access to basic public health and this fact should be considered seriously. Voicing concern over the poor state of rural health services, the Delhi High Court has asked the Health Ministry to consider launching a special medical course of three years to bring out doctors to man primary healthcare centres in the country. A division bench comprising Chief Justice Ajit Prakash Shah and Justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw asked the Union Health Ministry and the Medical Council of India (MCI) to consider changing the MBBS curriculum so that basic health facilities can be provided to the rural populace.